March 4, 2003

• First, an updated Iditarod Update:

  
  

  As of about 7:30 PM Xanga (Eastern) time, three mushers had made it to the Tanana checkpoint:  Robert Sorlie, John Baker, and Jeff King.  Dee Dee Jonrowe, in 22nd place, left Manley about four hours ago.

  
  

  Although several of the registered mushers withdrew before the race’s start, none of the starters have scratched yet.

  
  

  Now, to return to our regularly scheduled blogging….

  
  

  FOUR BOYS

  
  

  One kid had ADHD, high test scores and miserable grades.  In a small school a long bus ride from home, he had few friends.  When he started wearing glasses in third grade, it helped with the schoolwork, but didn’t help him socially.

  
  

  One was another misfit boy, but a year younger.  He wore glasses, too.  His dad was the village handyman and might have been the town drunk if he hadn’t had so much competition for the position.

  
  

  Those two saw each other around school but didn’t get to know each other until the older one took a year off from school to travel, between elementary and jr. high.  In the same grade upon his return, and in a school new to both of them, they became friends in jr. high.  In spare moments at school, they played D&D.  That long bus ride, no car for either boy, and their shared geeky, bookworm, computer nerd personalities, meant that they seldom saw each other outside of school.

  
  

  The other two boys eventually joined in the role-playing games with the first two.  One of them was taller than most grown men when his friends were about up to his belt buckle.  Then he stopped growing at what is still a reasonably normal height.  An early bloomer physically, he had a childlike fantasy life and loved video RPGs.  Constantly in camo during grade school, in jr. high he became very goth in appearance and had waist-length light brown hair.  In high school he adopted the name of the main enemy boss in his favorite video game.  A little later on, as an emancipated minor, he had his name legally changed.

  
  

  The fourth boy loved video games and computers, too, but always had to share those he had at home.  He was the eldest of a big growing family that moved into the neighborhood when he was in seventh grade.  His father worked as a building contractor and karate instructor.  The first boy had barely noticed this new kid in school before he and his mother enrolled for martial arts training with the boy’s father.  When the sensei brought his slender but skilled eldest son along as a sparring partner for the bigger first boy, they became friends.

  
  

  The four boys started spending more time at each other’s houses as they grew older and more mobile.  The early-blooming kid’s mother moved away and he decided not to move with her.  He was officially a “runaway” or delinquent, with his mom’s connivance, living with various friends in the neighborhood, including each of the other three boys.  Then the karate master took a guardian’s responsibility for him officially and helped him stay in high school for a while.

  
  

  But the young man left school and wandered between his friends’ houses and other friends and cousins in a nearby town.  He had a series of menial jobs, and he commissioned a smith to make him a sword that stood taller than himself.  He carried it everywhere, walking and hitchhiking 

  
  

  The sensei’s son had grown big and beefy, and a Marine Corps recruiter made him a great offer.  Right after graduation, he was gone.  The little geeky one had dropped out of high school after several suspensions for vandalism.  He hung around home for a while, then joined the Army soon after the Marine went away.

  
  

  The first boy, having coasted through high school without doing homework, did his senior year twice, with correspondence school in the summer between.  During that one’s last year in high school, the early bloomer dropout was moving up into supermarket management in a job that started as a bag boy.  Then he met and married his soulmate, an older woman with a young son.  Soon after that, the better to support his family, he joined the Army.

  
  

  The myopic late-bloomer has been out of school almost two years now and the other boys almost three years.  He has heard from his friend in the Marines once or twice, but not for over a year.  He and his mother get occasional phone calls from one or the other of the two young men now in the Army.  In their high school years, that young man’s mother became a close friend and confidante to the early-blooming drifter and the weird little geeky guy with all the repressed anger and hostility.

  
  

  I have no serious worries that my kid will be drafted if the draft is reinstated.  I think the chance that he could pass a military physical is very slim.  If he did pass the physical, he’d probably flunk a psych exam.  Under the circumstances, it’s fortunate for him that he’s not interested in a military career.  Still, I have young men in the military.  Joe, that beefy Marine who used to throw me across the dojo when the top of his head wasn’t up to my shoulder, is important to me.  Matt, the geeky kid who calls, talks to Doug a few minutes and then gets on the line with me and talks, talks, talks… I love that young man.  It has been an honor to be allowed, by phone and email, to follow his growing maturity in military life.

  
  

  But Sephiroth, the early-bloomer, has been one of my favorite people since he was just a very tall little kid bicycling along the highway between home and the Wolf Safari tourist trap “theme park” all summer to clean out wolf cages for a few bucks.  He, more than any of the other kids including my own son, is responsible for my enjoyment of video games.  During his drifting period, when he moved in with us he brought his Super Nintendo and PlayStation and got me hooked.  He introduced me to ChronoTrigger and Final Fantasy… even FFTactics, “Tic-Tacs,” the best of the best.

  
  

  His phone calls tended to come in the middle of the night when he was just fifty miles away at his cousin’s house, having a sleepless night and needing someone to talk to.  He still does sometimes need to talk, but calling from Germany, he usually catches someone awake here.  Even if I was sound asleep, I’d try to wake up because he’s always got something interesting to say.  This man is a deep thinker and a brilliant fantasist, an Aquarian with imagination and flair.   He is my personal number one reason for dreading war.

  
  

  The rest of the list is long and diverse, embracing everything from the most personal, selfish motives to the highest spiritual ideals.  With all my heart and soul I cry and pray:  no more war!  In my mind and my gut, I  suppose we must endure one now.  I may have to take it.  I don’t have to like it.

  • 8:00 pm
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